Confed Cup champions Mazembe look to book final berth

Rainford Kalaba of TP Mazembe ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Saturday Oct 21, 2017. 17:48

TP Mazembe will look to book a place in the final of the CAF Confederation Cup for a second successive year when they face FUS Rabat in Morocco on Saturday evening.

The teams’ second-leg, semifinal clash is set for the Stade de FUS in Rabat, kick-off at 22h30 CAT.

Mazembe, the reigning Confed Cup champions, lead 1-0 from the first leg in Lubumbashi earlier this month - Ben Malango’s 14th minute goal is all that separates the teams heading into the return match.

Ravens coach Mihayo Kazembe is adamant that his side will not defend their lead in Morocco, but look to add to their advantage.

“We will not go to Rabat to be dumped on, we will play thoroughly. FUS will offer us an open game where we will have more spaces. As far as we are concerned, we will push to score goals,” said the TPM coach after the first leg.

He added, “The victory must quickly be forgotten, there is a second leg where the qualification will be at stake. It is up to us to quickly get back to work with a focus on finishing exercises.”

Kazembe’s counterpart at FUS, coach Walid Regragui, knows that his team will need to produce something special in the return leg if they are to emerge victorious o aggregate.

“We will need a big FUS to create the feat in Rabat in front of a Congolese fire attack. The Congolese team can come and score at [our] home,” said Regragui after the first match in Lubumbashi.

“We must question ourselves. In the second leg, we must first score a goal at home, then we will see if we can score a second goal.”

He added, “One to nil is not a good score for us because we have to be very strong in the second leg. We must win 1-0 to expect the penalty shootout, not to concede and especially to score two goals to qualify.”

The match in Rabat will be handled by Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe. The aggregate winners will face either South Africa’s SuperSport United or Tunisia’s Club Africain in the final, which will be played over two legs in November.